SC

S.C. Supreme Court: Catholic Church Could Be Liable For More Sex Abuse Claims

Ruling could open the floodgates…

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The South Carolina supreme court has unanimously reversed a controversial decision by a scandal-scarred former circuit court judge – and upheld by the state’s court of appeals – which shielded the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston, S.C. from liability in a decades-old sexual abuse case.

The ruling – which could open the floodgates for sexual abuse lawsuits against the church – focuses on the Palmetto State’s interpretation of “charitable immunity,” a provision of British law which arose in the mid-nineteenth century and holds that non-profits are exempt from certain claims against them.

“The question in this case requires us to embark upon some legal time travel in search of the answer,” noted justice Garrison Hill in the unanimous opinion of the court. “We conclude South Carolina has never extended charitable immunity to cover intentional torts. We therefore reverse the decision of the court of appeals and remand this case to the trial court.”

According to Hill, charitable immunity has been thoroughly discredited on “logic and experience” – and has become a “disfavored doctrine” which is “beating a steady retreat from many jurisdictions.”

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By way of background, an unnamed petitioner – John Doe – sued multiple defendants tied to the diocese in 2018 alleging he had been “sexually molested” between 1969-1971 by two teachers at Sacred Heart Catholic School (now the Charleston Catholic School). Doe was between the ages of 12 and 14 at the time of the alleged abuse. Former S.C. circuit court judge Bentley Price ruled in favor of the diocese – concluding Doe could not bring his actions against the church due to the doctrine of charitable immunity.

In August 2023, the S.C. court of appeals upheld Price’s ruling – concluding “no court in this state had, at that time, restricted the charitable immunity doctrine to such an extent as to hold respondents liable for intentional torts.”

According to the appeals court’s ruling (.pdf), “complete immunity existed for charitable institutions” at the time the alleged abuse took place.

The supreme court shredded this conclusion, asserting that no “blanket immunity” existed for the diocese related to the claims Doe made against it.

“The doctrine of charitable immunity… does not bar (Doe)’s intentional tort claims against the Diocese,” Hill concluded.

Hill cited a landmark 1973 case, Jeffcoat v. Caine, which concluded the extension of charitable immunity to intentional torts was “not required by precedent, nor, we conclude, by reason or justice” and that the supreme court had “in every instance refused” to extend it to cover such claims.

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“We know of no public policy, and none has been suggested, which would require the exemption of the charity from liability for an intentional tort; and we refuse to so extend the charitable immunity doctrine,” the late James Woodrow Lewis wrote for the unanimous majority in that case.

In addition to opening the door to future legal claims, the high court’s decision sends Doe’s case back to the circuit court for trial.

Count on our media outlet for updates on those proceedings as they move forward…

FITSNews has covered all manner of religious scandals in recent years – most notably the saga unfolding at the former Solid Rock Church in Myrtle Beach, S.C. We’ve also pulled no punches in years past in calling out the Catholic Church over the systemic sex abuse scandals within its ranks.

“The church has compounded the crisis by failing to address it quickly and decisively,” I editorialized back in 2018. “Seriously, if there were ever a reason to tie people to a stake and light the match … this is it.  But that is not what the church has done, and its failure is likely to do lasting damage to an institution established fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the early first century.”

Based on this week’s ruling from the court, it would appear additional accountability is coming…

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THE RULING…

(S.C. Supreme Court)

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Will Folks on phone
Will Folks (Brett Flashnick)

Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.

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4 comments

CongareeCatfish Top fan January 16, 2025 at 12:19 pm

Can anyone – ANYONE- name a single national or international level organization of any type or classification that has or had anywhere near the level of homosexual & bisexual pedophiles in their rank and file leadership as the Roman Catholic Church? And now it is being led by a bona fide communist apostate who directly contradicts the words of Jesus Christ himself when He said “I am the way, the truth, and the light- no man comes to the father but by me.” The Pope now says (paraphrasing) “meh- ours is just one of many ways to get to heaven.” That is straight-up blasphemy. How the Catholic Church has not lost 90% of its members by now is beyond my comprehension. The former Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the USA (Schori I think was her name) basically said the said thing about 10+ years ago and that church broke up and the membership of both sides of the schism plummeted.

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Happy Jack Top fan January 16, 2025 at 3:30 pm

The is another Judge Price Order and trial both of which were affirmed by the SC Court of Appeals but ultimately reversed by the SC Supreme Court in the last two weeks!

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Be Kind Anyway Top fan January 17, 2025 at 10:54 pm

And attorneys on both sides made money at EVERY stage of litigation… and now attorneys will profit from the case being sent back down on remand… and attorneys on ALL sides will profit from the multitudinous settlement agreements between the Church and victims that the SC Supreme Court ruling just facilitated. SC lower court judges are incentivized to issue rulings ripe for appeal (motivation for lawyer legislators to put/keep corrupt & incompetent judges on the bench). The Court of Appeals is incentivized to reverse or affirm based on on how deep the pockets are and the parties’ willingness to continue litigation. If there’s still money to be pilfered, the Court will rule in a way to facilitate more litigation. Period. Facts, law, and justice have nothing to do with any of it. Since church pockets are deep indeed, there will be litigation into infinity. No one who financially profits through the current justice system is incentivized to desire competent leadership or accountability for criminal misconduct. Every day, on every occasion, our lawyer legislators support judges, laws, and leadership that will result in more civil litigation. Judge Bentley Price’s time on the bench is the gift to lawyers that keeps on giving.

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AC Top fan January 17, 2025 at 7:16 am

Congaree catfish the many Protestant demonizations have far an away a much higher % of sustained sexual abuse than the Catholic Church. It is by far the largest Christian church in the world yet as a % the numbers of sustained sexual abuse allegations pale in comparison to the many different Protestant denominations many of whom try to “pray” the incident away. Do a little research

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